


A Fish Too Elusive To Catch

by LeesaPerrie



Category: White Collar
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-21
Updated: 2013-01-21
Packaged: 2017-11-26 09:01:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 361
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/648878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeesaPerrie/pseuds/LeesaPerrie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mozzie's thoughts on Neal being elusive - or not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Fish Too Elusive To Catch

**Author's Note:**

> I'm thinking this is set before Season 3, possibly even as early as Season 1, though there are references to a conversation in 4x10 (Vested Interests) and the back story as seen in 2x11 (Forging Bonds). Thank you for Jayne Perry and Sholio for the beta. Written for [fan_flashworks](http://fan-flashworks.livejournal.com/) for the prompt 'Elusive or Ephemeral'.

**e·lu·sive** \- adjective (from [dictionary.com](http://dictionary.reference.com/))  
 _1\. eluding clear perception or complete mental grasp; hard to express or define: an elusive concept._  
2\. cleverly or skilfully evasive: a fish too elusive to catch.

Mozzie has known Neal a long time and one thing he knows well, is that Neal considers himself too smart, too clever, too _elusive_ to get caught. Which is why he's prone to brazen acts, like signing the Atlantic Bonds or leaving cryptic clues for the Suit - or even sending champagne to a surveillance van.

Not to mention those late night telephone conversations that Mozzie isn't supposed to know about, but of course he does. He might not have accompanied Neal on all of his foreign jaunts, but enough to know that Neal never could resist calling the Suit to tease and taunt that he was out of the Suit's jurisdiction. 

Too brazen for his own good, and yet Mozzie had to accept that none of these acts had led to Neal being caught. No, that was down to love, powerful enough to turn a smart man stupid so that he walked into a trap knowing full well it was almost certainly a trap.

Even then, as far as Neal was concerned, it wasn't so much being caught as giving himself up - no matter how much the Suit might gloat otherwise. 

The second time, Neal was convinced he'd been waiting for the Suit and so _hadn't_ been caught then either. That he hadn't even tried to run, being too dispirited by missing Kate by a mere two days. Or some such idiotic thing.

So yes, Neal is still convinced that he's too smart to be caught, despite evidence to the contrary. Lots of evidence to the contrary, now that he works for the Suit and rarely gets away with much. But Mozzie lets him continue with the fantasy, because really, he suspects that Neal knows deep down that it's not true. That the only one of them that truly _has_ been too elusive to catch has been him, Mozzie, the man behind the curtain, the Machiavellian puppet master.

The one who'll catch Icarus every time he falls.


End file.
